
In Golang, errors are a fundamental concept that can be unwrapped to provide more information about what went wrong.
Unwrapping errors is a crucial step in error handling, as it allows you to access the underlying cause of the error.
Golang's error type is a built-in interface that can be implemented by any type, making it a versatile and powerful tool for error handling.
The Unwrap function, part of the errors package, is a simple and efficient way to unwrap an error and access its underlying cause.
A common pattern in Golang is to use a custom error type that implements the Unwrap function to provide additional information about the error.
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Wrapping and Unwrapping Errors
You can wrap an error in Golang using errors.New() followed by fmt.Errorf() with the %w verb to add context.
The wrapped error can be unwrapped using the errors.Unwrap() function, which fetches what's inside the wrapper.
To fix error checking, you need to unwrap the wrapped error using errors.Unwrap().
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Sometimes you want to wrap your errors and return extra information about the context in which the error occurred, which is where fmt.Errorf() and the %w verb come in.
You can use errors.Is() to unwrap the error chain and check if the error has a specific value.
Implementing Unwrap() on your custom error type allows errors.Is() to use this custom method to get to the underlying error value.
Wrapping an error with at least the function's name every time you "bubble it up" is generally a good idea, but there are exceptions where wrapping an error may not be appropriate.
In Go 1.13, wrapping was introduced, allowing you to embed errors into other errors, just like wrapping exceptions in other languages.
The contract does not care about error types, structure, or how they are created, but only the unwrapping procedure and conversion to string.
To check for a value in a wrapped error list, you can use errors.Is(), which does the unwrapping for you.
You can also implement a custom Unwrap() method on your custom error type to make errors.Is() work with your custom errors.
errors.Join() returns an error that wraps the given errors, discarding any nil error values, and you can use errors.Is() to check for error values in the joined error.
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Custom Types
You can implement your own custom error types in Go by creating a struct that implements the error interface.
To do this, you need a struct with fields that can hold extra information, such as a timestamp. This struct should implement the error interface by creating a method Error() with a value receiver.
Custom errors can have multiple fields, and you can use errors.As() to check if an error value is of a specific type, even if the fields have different data.
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Pointer to Custom Value
You can store extra information alongside the actual error with a custom error type. This is achieved by implementing the error interface with a struct that has a single Error() method.
To create a custom error type, you need a struct with extra fields, like info and err. This struct must implement the error interface by creating a method Error() with the custom error type as a value receiver.
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You can use errors.As() to check if an error value is of a specific type, even if the fields have different data. This is because errors.As() checks the type, not the field values.
Custom error types can be used to pass extra information, such as a timestamp, alongside the actual error. This is done by creating a struct with the extra fields and implementing the error interface.
The fields of the custom error type don't need to have the same values as the fields of the actual error, and you can still use errors.As() to check the type. This is a useful feature when working with custom error types.
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Defining Custom Types
You can create custom error types in Go by implementing the error interface, which has a single Error() method that returns a string.
To implement a custom error type, you need to define a struct with extra fields that hold additional information. This struct must implement the error interface by defining an Error() method.

Custom error types can also implement the Unwrap() method, which allows errors.Is() to use this custom method to get to the underlying error value.
Here's an example of how to define a custom error type with additional fields:
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By implementing the error interface and the Unwrap() method, you can create custom error types that carry additional data fields and provide more functionality than standard error types.
Best Practices
In practice, it's best to wrap errors with the function's name every time you "bubble it up" - i.e. every time you receive the error from a function and want to continue returning it back up the function chain.
This approach helps keep track of all possible errors ensuring the required HTTP status codes, as seen in the example where errors declarations are typically spread across many packages.
Wrapping errors with HTTP status codes is now possible in Go 1.20+, thanks to the fmt.Errorf function wrapping multiple errors, unlike in Go 1.19 or older.
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You can easily extract the actual HTTP status code via errors.As, but the example keeps it simple by using a new error type based on the int type.
In some cases, wrapping an error may not be appropriate, such as when exposing underlying issues might be a security, privacy, or UX concern.
This could be the case if you're writing an open-source library or a REST API where you don't want the underlying error message to be returned to the 3rd-party user.
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Go 1.13 and Later
In Go 1.13, the error APIs were revamped to make error handling more efficient and informative.
Prior to Go 1.13, error handling was limited, making it difficult to identify the source of an error.
The new error APIs in Go 1.13+ provide a simple way to add information to errors, such as the function that produced the error.
This is particularly useful in programs that involve multiple database operations, like the example program that manages a database of users.
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In this program, the error check in the main function should catch the error and print a message, but it wouldn't be clear which database operation produced the error.
With the new error APIs, you can add the information needed to identify the source of the error.
This makes error handling more efficient and informative, allowing you to quickly diagnose and fix issues in your program.
Syntax and Examples
To create a new error in Golang, you need to create a new error using errors.New() followed by fmt.Errorf() with the %w verb to wrap the error. This allows you to wrap a simple built-in error instance.
The wrapped error can be unwrapped using the errors.Unwrap() function. You can also use the errors.Is() function to check if any error in the chain matches the target, without needing to unwrap the error.
Here's a quick example of how to wrap and unwrap an error:
You can also use the errors.As() function to check if an error is of a specific type, like in the second example.
Syntax for Wrapping

To wrap an error in Golang, you need to create a new error using errors.New() followed by fmt.Errorf() with the %w verb.
The %w verb is a special format verb that can only be used once per call. It's used to wrap an error argument, making it easy to add context information to the error message.
To wrap an error, you can use fmt.Errorf() with the %w verb, like this: fmt.Errorf("unknown user: %w", err). This will create a new error that wraps the original error.
The wrapped error can be unwrapped using the errors.Unwrap() function, which will return nil for the last error value in the list.
The errors.Unwrap() function is used to unwrap a wrapped error, giving you access to the original error message.
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Examples
In Go, errors can be wrapped to provide additional context or information. This is achieved using the fmt.Errorf() function with the %w verb.
When working with wrapped errors, it's essential to use the errors.Is() function to check if a specific error is in the chain. This function returns true if any error in the chain matches the target, regardless of the number of wrappers.

The errors.Is() function is more reliable than a simple comparison using the == operator. For example, if err == ErrorInternal would return false, errors.Is(err, ErrorInternal) would still return true.
Wrapped errors can be unwrapped using the errors.Unwrap() function. This function returns the innermost error in the chain, effectively removing the wrapper.
To check if an error is of a specific type, use the errors.As() function instead of errors.Is(). This function checks if the error in the chain is of the specific type and returns a pointer to the error if true.
Here are some examples of how to wrap, unwrap, and test for errors:
In the example code, the getError() function returns a wrapped error depending on the parameter set. The error is wrapped using fmt.Errorf() and the %w verb. The errors.Is() function is used to check if the error is of a specific type, and the errors.Unwrap() function is used to unwrap the error.
By using these functions, developers can effectively handle and test errors in their Go code.
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Defining Error Handling
Defining Error Handling is a crucial technique in Go that allows you to execute a different branch of code if a certain kind of error is encountered.
By defining expected Errors, you can explicitly check for them in other parts of your code, making your program more robust and easier to maintain.
This technique becomes useful when you need to handle errors in a specific way, such as executing a different branch of code when a certain kind of error is encountered, as mentioned in the article.
Defining expected Errors can be done using the Error type in Go, which allows you to create custom error types that can be checked for explicitly in your code.
Explicitly checking for errors can help prevent errors from propagating and causing unexpected behavior in your program.
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